A virtual reality art exhibition that depicts the roots and connections of memories in these turbulent times.

At a wretched time when community spaces, social gatherings and celebrations of friendships have all been battered, artist Dr. Reshma Thomas is utilizing the possibilities of technology to create a public space for art appreciation with her two-dimensional virtual reality exhibition, 'Of Roots and Connections'.

Pictures of Lucky Red Seeds (Manchaadi kuru) are a common imprint on these paintings, done on handmade paper.

Three-dimensional metaphors emerge from these visuals, simultaneously like the good days of the past resurrecting from the memories of an unexpected tragedy or like blood dripping from the wounded present.

Like our roots,

Our pains,

Like the make-believe beauty of our relationships!

All that became alien to us in a flash – the greenery of the forest, the blue of the sea, and the changing colors of sunrise and sunset – delightfully come alive in these paintings.

Whether one views it on a mobile phone, computer screen, or smart TV, the exhibition is designed to give the art enthusiast the same feel like a visit to an art gallery.

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“These paintings anchor me, they probe deep into the soil, where, deep down, my roots entangle with others.. 

We are living in a time when Nature is staring back at us in its most minute and subtlest form, and also with its most devastating impacts. It is a time when we have shed all that was unnecessary, inessential, and superficial – to our lives and livelihoods, mind and intellect, self and soul. Driven to the basics of life, the origins of our being, the world is reborn to each one of us. Certain memories that we cherish and sustain our life rise up to hold us together in this moment of misery and suffering, certain objects assume vital significance, they glimmer and glow, reminding us of where we came from, the weary journeys we took, certain visions resurface like the trees that offered us shade, the springs that quenched our primal thirsts.

For me, these paintings were journeys towards the sources of my being, and also an invitation to re-connect with the world and to reveal and revel one’s self before the other. Many things dear to me, like the red manjadi seeds, thrust their way into my memories, bleeding onto the canvas, mixing and conversing with the colours and patterns that, in fact, paints me”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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